Leeroy’s Burson Conductor 3X Reference with HiFiMAN HE1000 V2 Stealth

Published on

Sales Burson
September 28, 2023

Post Info

Feedbacks - Conductor 3R | 3XR
Burson Conductor 3X Reference, HiFiMAN HE1000 V2 Stealth, Sennheiser HD 6XX

I moved from the Shiit Jotunheim 2 with the built in dac to this unit. It certainly is an upgrade in every dimension. The schiit was excellent but the conductor 3xr has helped tamed some of the harshness of the HE1000 stealth while maintaining everything else that is great about these headphones.

The System

Listening with

HiFiMAN HE1000 Stealth · Headphones: open-back, planar magnetic, circumaural

Impedance: 32 Ω
Sensitivity: 93 dB (reference not stated by HiFiMAN)
Frequency response: 8 Hz – 65 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: not published (HiFiMAN spec page lists no connector)
Other: weight 458 g

^[1]

Sennheiser HD 6XX · Headphones: open-back, dynamic, circumaural

Impedance: 300 Ω
Sensitivity: 103 dB SPL @ 1 kHz, 1 V (as published) ≈ 97.8 dB/mW (calc.)
Frequency response: 10 Hz – 41 kHz
Plugs / cables supplied: 3.5 mm stereo jack plug (6.35 mm adapter); 1.8 m cable
Other: THD <0.1% (1 kHz, 1 V)

Matching notes: At 300 Ω and 103 dB/V, the HD 6XX is a high-impedance load that needs voltage more than current: about 2.2 V (17 mW, 7.5 mA) for 110 dB SPL (calc.). Burson rates the Conductor 3X Reference at 0.58 W (XLR) / 0.3 W (SE) into 300 Ω, which is about 13.2 V / 9.5 V RMS (calc.), roughly 15 dB / 13 dB more than that. The Conductor 3X Reference’s 0.5 Ω headphone output impedance is 1/600 of the load. ^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Burson

Burson Conductor 3X Reference · DAC / headphone amplifier / preamp · discontinued

Output power (XLR / SE): 16 Ω 7.5 W / 3.75 W · 32 Ω 5 W / 2.5 W · 100 Ω 1.75 W / 0.88 W · 150 Ω 1.16 W / 0.58 W · 300 Ω 0.58 W / 0.3 W
Output impedance: 0.5 Ω (headphone); 1 Ω (pre out); 25 Ω (DAC out)
Output voltage: RCA 2 V (DAC out)
Gain: High / Low; dB not published
Inputs: 2x XLR; USB (XMOS; PCM to 768 kHz/32-bit, native DSD512); Toslink; coaxial; Bluetooth 5.0 aptX HD; microphone
Input impedance: 40 kΩ
Input sensitivity: line level
Outputs: XLR pre out; line-level DAC out; 6.35 mm + 4-pin XLR headphone
DAC / chipset: 2x ESS ES9038Q2M
Other: Model R180X (3XR); THD <0.0015%; FR ±1 dB 0-58 kHz

^{[4] [5] [6]}

Specs from manufacturer data unless a source below says otherwise. “calc.” values are worked out from those figures (V = √(P × R); 110 dB SPL used as a loud reference level). Gear listed without specs is not in our spec library yet.